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Lake Mack–Paisley Tornado (2007)

Tornado February 2, 2007 · Volusia County, Florida

EF3
Rating
26.0 mi
Whole path
450 yd
Path width
13
Deaths
51
Injuries
$98.0M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Lake County → Volusia County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 450 yards (0.26 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado that killed 13 people in the Lake Mack area of Lake County moved east across the St. Johns River, crossed into Volusia county at Lake Beresford and moved across Deland as an F3 tornado. It was still moving east northeast at 50 MPH as it damaged 277 and destroyed 106 residences in the Deland area. The tornado finally lifted about eight miles east of Deland along Highway 44. There were no fatalities in Volusia County but 42 people were injured.

The wider storm

A series of powerful tornadoes swept across Sumter, Lake and Volusia counties during the early morning hours of February 2, 2007. A discontinuous swath of tornado damage was observed from near Wildwood in Sumter County to the town of Lady Lake (Lake County) to New Smyrna Beach (Volusia County). This was a distance of over 70 miles. A total of 21 fatalities occurred within Lake County. Central Florida was located in the warm sector ahead of an advancing cold front. Large scale lift was supported by a very strong jet aloft, with strong vertical shear. Instability increased overnight with temperatures and dew points increasing through the pre-dawn hours. A single long-tracked supercell thunderstorm traveled from Sumter County to the coastal waters of Volusia County during the early morning hours of February 2, 2007. Three tornadoes touched down along this track.

Began near Beresford (29.0000, -81.3778).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 20318. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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